Friday, 15 July 2016

Your Says of the Day: Vermaelen past his best, Blind should stay

Our readers debate Thomas Vermaelen’s potential
return to Arsenal, who needs to stay and leave Man Utd and why Saido
Berahino is right to reject West Brom’s contract offer.

Arsenal fans divided on possible Vermaelen return

Rumours are picking up that Verm is set to leave Barcelona and wants to come back to Arsenal.
Not sure about this one. The stories go that Barca want £10m, which
seems a bit steep to me, for a 30-year-old injury prone player.
At the same time, while I didn’t really follow what he was up to in
Spain, he was definitely one of Belgium’s better players at the Euros
and maybe with the way the market is right now, £10m is the equivalent
of £5m a couple of years ago.
He’s not the top CB he once was and that we need now, but with Mert
becoming less reliable and the jury still well out on Gabriel, might be
worth a punt as back up.
End of the day, I really can’t see Wenger spending big on defence, if
he spends anything at all and Verm coming home would be better than
nothing.Al_The_Gooner

He gave us some good moments, granted. Perhaps the one I always
remember was the 94th minute winner against Newcastle at home, 2011/12
season.
But I think we have to move on and we also have to realise that the
club is in a position now, financially and otherwise, to have ambitions
that extend far beyond those of that period. If I didn’t think Vermaelen
was good enough then, then he certainly isn’t good enough for us now.
He tried to be a good leader – I never believed it came to him as
naturally as many thought – and to lead by example. And that’s fair. But
we can and MUST do better.
As I said, there are many unknown names out there that would cost
less AND do a better job – particularly in areas where we are
deficient defensively like dealing with aerial threats and limiting
space around the box for shooters.
PS: That Silvestre move was when it started to fall into place for me that Wenger wasn’t a horse worth backing anymore.barber_

Blind is a key player

United should keep Depay and Blind, me being Dutch I know how they
are playing and the first season is always tough, surely under a loser
as LVG. Depay is a great talent, even CR7 named him in his top five from
the biggest talents so far. The only problem with Depay is that his
personal life is getting into the media too much, but his work rate is
fantastic.
Just give him a chance to see what he could do when he’s starting
many matches in a row. From Blind, no need to say anything, just look at
last season, his vision and being smart in the match, Mourinho needs
that in a player.Loney_striker

Would be a shame to see Blind leave. He showed last year how
adaptable he is. Very good LB and DM. Obviously not a Mourinho type CB
but with Jones made of glass and Bailly yet to settle in, he could still
be a very important squad player for us.homerjay540

Can’t believe JM is actually considering getting rid of Blind. I
would have got rid of Carrick and put Blind in his place in the squad.
If he is happy to get rid of players like Mata and Blind but keep
Jones, Valencia and Ashley Young then I would be seriously worried.
I look at that potential 24 man squad including Pogba and I still cant see it being good enough to win the PL…rs83

Sympathy for Berahino

At the risk of upsetting a few fans I tell you why I have a bit of
sympathy for Saido. Yes I was as annoyed as anyone at last summers
events. On the face of it a spoilt kid insulting our club and acting in
the manner he did, especially as our club has done a lot for him and his
family.
However he is young and made a mistake, I’m sure all of us on here
have said the wrong thing and thrown our toys out the pram in the heat
of the moment. What we all wanted was Saido to score lots of goals.
Here is my problem he wasn’t given the chance! His first game back we
played villa away, we won 1-0 and Saido scored, Great exactly what was
needed, but then he was bombed out of the team.
He didn’t start a game from October to February having Lambert and
Anichebe played ahead of him even Craig Gardner played up front instead
of him! Why? We don’t really know as TP seemed to have a different
excuse from week to week.
From his head not being right to not being fit. All the time stating
in the media that he was working hard day in day out! None of his
excuses made sense. In my opinion that TP wanted to sell in January and
was playing poker with Jeremy Peace.
Once January was over and he was still at Albion, he was suddenly
playing again. So he was rubbish and didn’t score any goals. Who the
hell would in our team! We are so negative! The problem is that Saido
and so many other great strikers are only a good as the service they get
– which at albion is nothing.
Why would he sign a new contract at a club where he knows the
managers style doesn’t suit him where he won’t improve because of the
manager and where he won’t score goals. Yes he messed up he is only
human. But moving forward if TP is in charge he has to leave!lesbaggie

Jones not good enough for United

There’s been a few occasions where he’s run the ball out of the
defence tricking his way past oncoming attackers. At times he looks
really good but at times he looks like he’s never been on a football
pitch before.
He’s just got to stay injury free and get a run in the team, then he
can be judged. Everyone was writing Smalling off for similar reasons and
he’s turning into a top quality CB so maybe Jones can do the same, who
knows.happyhurling

Unbelievably lucky to be at this club.
Fergie you are right he is not talented. I really dont know what people see in him.
Reason why he is always injured is because he is not built like a
footballer. He always gets caught out and gets injured trying to cover
for his mistakes. Have you ever seen him in a control?
A top defender is not one who gets stuck in, throwing his body all
over the place. A top defender is someone who can read the game and
doesn’t get into a situation where he needs to put in a last ditch
tackle.
If Jones wasnt English i doubt he would be a professional footballer.
Anyway cant see him going. I think JM sees him as our JTrs83

Chelsea need to give young players a chance

We are very bad with our young players, basically we don’t give them
opportunity. Or we’d recruited wrong players when they were young and
they turn out to be not good enough for Chelsea standard.
Last player from academy who became a regular – John Terry, reflecting how bad the situation is.aindro